motorcyclebloggers.com

I finally got to meet Doug, a fellow blogger at 40 on 2 this past Friday. Since both of work for companies that had Good Friday off, it was a Great Friday. On a somewhat last minute decision, we met up in Maricopa, AZ to head out for the morning.

I was really looking forward to this ride for several reasons. First, it has been a while with having a 2 year old daughter and a 3 month old daughter. Second, its been even a longer while where I wasn’t watching the clock. Was I going to get home when I said I was so that my wife can get some errands done, etc. Third, on Thursday I was a chemist - everything I touched turned to shit. It was the worst bad-brain day (blonde bad) that I had suffered in years. I would have been a risk to myself and others had Friday been a sport ride on the RSVR up in the mountains somewhere. Finally, the idea that Doug didn’t have a plan was refreshing. I always have a plan. That’s what you do when you’re watching the clock.

Anyway, from Maricopa we headed almost due west on HWY 238. It was a nice relaxing country road that showed me parts of AZ I hadn’t seen before. I bought the Caponord for its comfort and my commute. I had yet to take it on a pleasure ride. This was nice.

Then after 30 or so miles, I saw one of those yellow signs with the squiggly arrows indicating turns ahead and saw Doug starting to pull away. Hmmm…looks like we’re going to attack these twisties. As we were going through the turns (mind you not tight stuff, but high speed sweepers) I saw triple digits. Although I am sure Doug obeyed all of the local ordinances, I have to admit that the Capo does just fine at 120mph…ahem - so I am told.

After a break at Gila Bend, we intended to head north on Old HWY 80 but missed our turn. As we were navigating our way back on track this jerk pictured to my right pulled up next to me at a light. He wanted to race. He was mocking me and my dirt bike. He even opened the hatch and asked “That thing got a Hemi???” followed by a laugh. Yeah, real funny. So funny that I dismounted the Capo and slit his tire. By the time I was back on the bike he was still wrestling with his 5-point harness as the hatch was once again raising. Who’s laughing now Mr. Funny Man?

We found Old US-80 shortly after and worked our way along the Gila Bend Canal. This was farm land. Truth is I didn’t know AZ had this much farm land. As we “kept on keepin’ on” we came to the intersection of three canals (Gila Bend, Enterprise, & Arlington) that a two-lane metal bridge took us over. In the immediate area, this low-land was surrounded by some mountains and cliffs.

Just after we passed over the bridge we pulled off the road onto a trail that took us to the edge those previously mentioned cliffs. This was the first time I had ever intentionally went off the perfectly paved asphalt on a motorcycle, after all it is an adventure tourer. We got to the edge, took a quick look and turned around. Doug led us to another trail, a better one, one with a hill!

As we sat there and contemplated if we should really climb that or not, I figured I was the dumber of the two and took off. That little outline pointed to by the red arrow is me.

While I wouldn’t say the climb was very difficult, it was intimidating. This was no 250lb. dirt bike with knobbies and a care-free attitude. Anyway, Doug followed my path and we hung out at the top for a while exchanging motorcycle ‘war-stories’.

I learned that I definitely need to get me one of those Euro-stands. I was not on flat ground up there and the lean angle was too much for my comfort. Yeah I could have jockeyed it around and found a spot, but I chose to put it up on the centerstand. That was a little tricky for my first time in the dirt and being all of 150 lbs or so.

I went first on the descent, because I was again the dumber of the two. As with dirt biking I thought surely going down a hill was going to be easier than up it. WRONG! I must have sat there for thirty full seconds planning a path and thinking to myself “who’s idea was this?”. The first part of the hill was pretty easy, but then it made a 90 degree bend to the left with loose stones and whoops. I was trying to control the speed with both brakes but both wheels kept locking as the grade in this section was fairly steep. I had several ‘moments’ at a speed of 0mph where I came to that no-speed high side feeling where the bars are at complete lock and you’re fighting the tip-over. Yeah…that sucked…bad.

I did get to the bottom eventually unscathed, but recommended to Doug that he take a different path. That one that we both judged from the top with our eyes to be too steep and loose, turned out to be much better for Doug. The Caponord is not a dirt bike - I know that now. I’ll probably look to someone else to go first next time!

This is a great pic below taken in my pre-descent thinking stage as you can actually see my regret for being up there in the first place.

Shortly after we made our way north back into civilization and grabbed some lunch at a Mexican place that had front row motorcycle parking. How nice. We BS’d some more over lunch, and of course I made some phone calls…alright so I wasn’t totally off of a schedule. I had a great time meeting and riding with Doug. I’m sure there are many more rides ahead. I am somewhat surprised that neither of us got struck by lightning. Of the ten or so Caponords that are in AZ, for two of them to be together was nothing short of an odds-buster.

For the first time in many rides I was home early. Now as far as the ride goes, that’s nothing to celebrate. But as far as the marriage…priceless.